I e-mailed the list on 24/3, asking about people's experiences with project
management software. Thank you to everyone who replied.
I receieved 7 responses, 5 favourable and 2 against.
The case 'For.' 'I personally found it very useful for setting out tasks,
milestones, responsibilities, relationships between tasks, and connections
between them, etc.' It seems to work best for complex, long-drawn out
projects. The favourable responses emphasised that they only use the very
basic parts of the software ('I was able to show a colleague the basics in
15 minutes).
Almost all comments were about Microsoft. Another, Prince, was heavily
criticised.
The case 'Against'. Even the 'enthusiasts' readily admintted that it is
complcated and 'experience of other MS Office products does not seem to help
at all.' In addition, there is a feeling that this may be 'IT for its own
sake' and certainly not worth the effort for smaller projects. Given that
Wolfson projects are, by their very nature, of less than one year's
duration, they would seem to fall into the smaller category.
Conclusions? Marginally favourable. Some libraries are using project
management software, but it looks as if you need a fairly high degree of IT
literacy and it has to be a long-running, more complicated project to make
it worthwhile.
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Bury Reference & Information Services
Alan Boughey, Reference & Information Services Librarian
Central Library, Manchester Road, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 0DG.
Tel. 0161 - 253 6047 Fax. 0161 - 253 5857
www.bury.gov.uk/culture.htm
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